The Strictest Laws in the World? WRONG - Updated Mar, 23, 2018

Weak Laws for Fish Farms, Not Strong for Salmonids.

This post brings together the posts I have written on weakening laws for fish farms and business in the past five years. Don't let them tell you they operate under 'the strictest laws' in the world. That's simply spin.

Below is a long list. Read it and take the link for your own reference. And say: 'not so fast, Slim' when fish farms claim strictness, then hurl this long list at them. I think it will stick.

But first, here is a Hakai Magazine article, written by Erica Gies, from April 5, 2017 on legal weakening and failure to enforce the laws by DFO: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/fisheries-and-oceans-canada-was-ignoring-its-own-habitat-protection-guidelines?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=d8b20e9fb1-Salmon_News_Apr7_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-d8b20e9fb1-166907249&mc_cid=d8b20e9fb1&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

The HADD provision has been central to protecting habitat:

"In 2012, Canada’s governing Conservative Party made a number of controversial changes to the federal Fisheries Act, including weakening protections for fish habitat. One focus of the party’s ire was a principle dating to the 1980s: a prohibition against “the harmful alteration, disruption, or destruction of fish habitat,” known as the HADD provision. Its policy objective was to ensure that, with any development proposal, there is a “net gain of habitat for Canada’s fisheries resources.”"

And Harper weakened it even though DFO had seldom enforced the provision.

"But was the original law actually a burden to industry? According to new research by Favaro and Olszynski, the answer seems to be no: even with the principle for net gain spelled out, Fisheries and Oceans Canada was scarcely enforcing the rule."

So strict laws mean nothing, if they are not enforced.

"Combined, the 78 projects Olszynski and Favaro reviewed from just that six-month period resulted in a net loss of almost three million square meters of fish habitat."

"the federal Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is currently reviewing the changes made to the Fisheries Act in 2012...

In its initial report published in February 2017, the committee recommended that DFO “renew its commitment to the ‘no net loss’ and ‘net gain’ policies.”

Note that DFO doesn't enforce Canada's weak legislation because the Conservation and Protection budget is so low there aren't enough officers to go around, not to mention that recently, the very few charges brought resulted in Department of Justice not going forward because they thought they would lose the case because of how poorly DFO did.

                                                      ****************

And now, an update to November 9 2017. DFO is not only not doing everything above and below, they are failing to enforce Regulation 56, among other things, and trying to allow fish farms to put PRV infected fish in BC's ocean, by farming out the responsibility to the CFIA. Hard to believe, but true. Here is ecojustice's take on the court case they are prosecuting. There is a good list of reading material in this meaty post: https://www.ecojustice.ca/fuel-my-fight-for-wild-salmon/.

In addition, ecojustice has put together a compelling list of weakening of laws regarding fish, DFO weakening the law: https://www.ecojustice.ca/amendments-fishery-regulations-wild-salmon/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=bn_2017.11.09&utm_content=2017.11.09+Fishery+Regulations.

Please donate to ecojustice for taking the Alex Morton case forward.


                                                      ****************

Now, here is the longgggg list of posts:

1. Key Document: Royal Society of Canada - DFO Failing Canada's Oceans - a stinging indictment (February 2012):  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/key-document-royal-society-of-canada.html. 

2. Most Stringent Fish Farm Laws In the World (December 2013): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/most-stringent-fish-farm-laws-in-world.html.

3. Weakening the Strictest Fish Farm Laws In the World (May 2014): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/05/weakenng-strictest-fish-farm-laws-in.html. Note that it mentions the Nancy Greene posts as well, just a week before.

4. New Aquaculture Regulations in Canada - Very Sad for Wild Pacific Salmon (July 2014): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/07/new-aquaculture-regulations-in-canada.html.

5. Aquaculture Activities Regulations - Canada (October 2014): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/aquaculture-activities-regulations.html.

6. Key Document: The Strictest Laws in the World? Not in Canada (November 2014): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/11/key-document-strictest-laws-in-world.html.

7. Canada: Strictest Laws in the World? No. Best Science? No. Weakest Laws in the World? Probably (December 2014):  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/canada-strictest-fish-farm-laws-no-best.html.

8. Summary: Fish Farm Environmental Laws Weakened by DFO and Harper Government (December 2014) You will want the good links in this one: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/summary-fish-farm-environmental-laws.html.

9. Norway to Make Laws Stricter, Not Looser Like in Canada - Shame on Shea (February 2015): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/02/norway-to-make-laws-stricter-not-looser.html

10. Seventeen Ways the Government Is Helping Kill Wild Salmon (May 2015): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/05/seventeen-ways-government-is-helping.html.

11. Stephen Harper Government Eliminates Environmental Laws for Fish Farms (July 2015):  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/07/stephen-harper-government-eliminates.html. There are some good links in this one that you will want.

12. Fixing The Fisheries Act - West Coast Environmental Law (April 2016): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/04/fixing-fisheries-act-west-coast.html.

13. Bill C-228 - Liberal Government Stands Against Pacific Salmon. This is Fin Donnelly's bill to get fish farms out of the water. (December 2016): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/12/bill-c-228-trudeau-liberals-stand.html.

14. Habitat Protection and Changes to Laws - Righting the Wrongs of the Harper Era (March 2017): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/habitat-protection-and-changes-to-laws.html. This one has the Parliamentary Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report. It made 32 recommendations, and they are in the post.

15. Environment Ruined by Fish Farms - Chilean Rivers (March 2017). This one has the Atlantic Salmon Federation study on the laws in individual Canadian provinces, the USA and Norway, finding, for example, that in NB, the laws reach only 45% of the ASC requirements (And the ASC's are weak themselves): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/environment-ruined-by-fish-farms.html. In this one, go look at the ASF graphic of how poorly the various provinces, USA and even Norway does in meeting the weak ASC standard. The link is: http://www.asf.ca/regulatory-review-to-improve-management-of-sea-cage-salmon-.html.

16. Ecojustice iTunes Podcast on needed changes to Canada's environmental laws:  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-case-for-a-better-earth/id1247705433?mt=2.

17. Westcoast Environmental Law assessment of needed changes to Canada's environmental laws:  https://www.getfisheriesright.eco/wcel/?utm_source=LEB.

18. Westcoast Envrionmental Law, from 2018, salmon are our buffalo:  https://www.wcel.org/blog/salmon-are-our-buffalo-environmental-risks-fish-farms-in-broughton-archipelago?utm_source=LEB.

                                       **************************

Here is another article on the subject: http://www.cdnsciencepub.com/blog/tallying-up-fish-habitat-loss-in-canada.aspx?utm_content=bufferea1be&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer&utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=d8b20e9fb1-Salmon_News_Apr7_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-d8b20e9fb1-166907249&mc_cid=d8b20e9fb1&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Here is a Dalhousie University study from 2017: https://blogs.dal.ca/melaw/2017/04/12/a-holistic-integrated-approach-to-federal-environmental-law-reform-a-historic-opportunity/?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=120f953d00-Salmon_News_Apr13_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-120f953d00-166907249&mc_cid=120f953d00&mc_eid=5777c92bcd. 

Here is some typical fish farm spin, 2016:  "Partner, Kjell Aasen in Nekst says: “A key success factor for the Norwegian aquaculture industry is the know-how, skills and professionalism of Norwegian authorities in charge of the industry.  It is a matter of looking around the world, to understand that we could not have built the best aquaculture industry in the world without a good set of regulations and a qualified bureaucracy.” See: http://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/news/world-largest-land-based-salmon-farm-is-granted-license/.

Now, go to the washroom and direct what is coming up your neck from your stomach into the toilet bowl.

*

Update Feb 28, 2018, Ecojustice's comments on the fisheries act et al:  https://www.ecojustice.ca/ecojustice-recommendations-helped-contribute-modernized-fisheries-act/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=Impact_2018_02_28&utm_content=2018.02.28+Impact.

Krisi Miller - Muzzled by Harper, Freer under Trudeau - Fish Farm Viruses, PRV

An update on the dark years of prime minister Stephen Harper, when government scientists were not allowed to talk to the media, with respect to Kristi Miller, geneticist with DFO has been published in Nature:  http://www.nature.com/news/nine-years-of-censorship-1.19842?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=2a60b06cb1-Salmon_News_May_4_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-2a60b06cb1-214661381.

You should read it. Miller had discovered that the viral-signature of returning sockeye ended up causing up to 90% prespawn mortality going up the Fraser and published her findings:  http://science.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/214.

Miller was not allowed to speak to the media, and at the Cohen Commission into the loss of Fraser sockeye, was kept in a separate room until testifying.

Nature says: "The starkest example for her came in 2011, when Miller-Saunders (then Miller) and her colleagues published a paper in Science that investigated why unusual numbers of sockeye salmon (Onchorhynchus nerka) were dying in British Columbia’s Fraser River on their way to spawn (K. M. Miller et al. Science 331, 214–217; 2011)."

"The topic was sensitive in part because some scientists and environmentalists had previously raised concerns that fish farms could transfer diseases to wild salmon."

Now, it is common knowledge that fish farms wildly amplify disease and once the infection sets in can release 65 billion virus particles per hour, and there are several dozen fish farm diseases.  Hence the worry over wild Pacific salmon being killed by them. Miller's work detailed the symptoms of viruses rather than identify specific viruses. And you will recall that four scientists recanted their work on the Cohen stand, including Michael Kent who worked on SLV at DFO, a virus wiping our farmed chinook salmon off Quadra Island - and on the outmigration route of Fraser sockeye. Sad indeed.

"Science had alerted journalists about the paper days ahead of its publication under an embargo, giving reporters time to conduct interviews and write their stories. Many journalists had contacted Lake with requests to speak with Miller-Saunders, and Lake had been busy setting up interviews during the days before publication. But the permission process dragged on, and Lake and Miller-Saunders had to postpone those interviews repeatedly.

"Then, on the day of the paper’s publication — 14 January — Lake got word from Ottawa that Miller-Saunders had been denied permission to talk to reporters at all. “Obviously, journalists were very upset, and it sort of snowballed from there,” Lake says. Many reporters wrote stories about the muzzling of a government scientist rather than about the genetics of salmon.



"The “Kristi Miller debacle”, as Lake calls it, was just one high-profile example of scientists being silenced. But there were hundreds of others, she says. “It was like an iron curtain was drawn across communicating research to Canadians.”"

And why did DFO and Harper forbid Miller talking? The federal government maintained it was inappropriate for Miller-Saunders, "to speak to reporters because she was part of a judicial enquiry into the management of sockeye salmon, known as the Cohen Commission. At a public enquiry of the commission in 2011, the DFO assigned Miller-Saunders a media officer and a bodyguard, whom Miller-Saunders describes as a “very nice burly man”. Miller-Saunders was kept in a separate room, away from the media and public, when not testifying. Her husband and daughter were there with her. “It was all very friendly and meant to keep me from distraction and being a distraction,” she says.

"Because she was not permitted to speak for herself, a media officer answered all questions on behalf of Miller-Saunders. “It was all a very surreal experience,” she says. University scientists on the commission, by contrast, could speak to the media freely."

Now, I watched the proceedings and it was hard hitting stuff for anyone who is up on fish farm problems. The third session, on fish farms diseases, Cohen initiated, because of DFO research on ISA, the Kibenge report, that it did not give to Cohen, but gave several hundred thousand other documents. When lawyer Dade lead Miller to it, she had to admit that the diseases may be 'the smoking gun'. Her visual reaction of realizing she might have inadvertantly spoken too far,in this climate of repression, and a former government worker myself, I squirmed as much as she did, realizing she might be the day's news, and Commission's ultimate revelation. It was stunning, Go back and watch the video.

But the conflict of interest that the government had with fish farms, DFO supporting them, which Cohen said should end, had Harper defending Norwegian fish farms against Canadian wild salmon, and Canadians. So Miller was not allowed to talk with media.

"The decision to muzzle Miller-Saunders was clearly political, says Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre. “There are all sorts of enquiries where experts talk about their findings outside of the hearing room.”"

KEY Document - Eliminating Fish Farms from Our Pristine Oceans, Now

Some milestone information has fallen into place regarding getting fish farms out of our pristine ocean in BC:

1. The public overwhelmingly rejects in-ocean fish farms.

In BC more than 110,000 people have signed a petition to get fish farms out of the ocean: See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

2. There are more than 100 on-land fish farm systems operating around the world, comprising more than 10,000 actual fish farms on land.

Hence, there is no more reason for in-ocean fish farms to damage our pristine oceans that they use as free, open sewers. The sewage cost in BC, I estimate at $10.4 Billion. The public doesn't want to pay.

See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/key-document-34-mostly-on-land-closed.html.

3. The fish seafood industry is a boom bust, multi-billion dollar, unsustainable form of business, characterized by cartel formation, disease propagation, many illegal activities and, most importantly, sewage production.

Cruise this list of more than 175 problems that I have put together in less than 3 months. These are news stories that appear in the global press every day. I think you will be taken aback by this list. I am.

See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/07/key-document-fish-farm-news-bites.html.

Now:

Okay, politicians, where is the Beef on getting fish farms out of the ocean and put on land, or they can go back to Norway? After all, there are only 800 actual jobs in the BC industry, and only a $61.9 Million contribution to the BC economy, while sport, commercial and processing are 10 times larger at over $600 Million contribution to GPP.

Of the following list only Elizabeth May has a policy to get fish farms out of the ocean. Shame on the rest of the politicians:

Christy Clark, Premier of BC, Canada
Stephen Harper, federal Conservative leader.
Thomas Mulcair, federal NDP leader
Justin Trudeau, federal Liberal leader.
Elizabeth May, federal Green Party leader.

Farmed Atlantic Salmon Should Not be Eaten - Norwegian Scientists, Doctors Say - Updated Oct 14, 2015

The following article link is a a really good one and I think that anyone who has eaten or is considering eating farmed fish should reconsider, and not buy it.

The health problems with eating farmed salmon started in 2004 with a Science article Jan 9, 2004 by the Hites group from Albany University. The fish farm industry literally went after the group to neutralize the article. I read the Spinwatch article on what they did and it was the beginning of my not believing anything a fish farm company says without ground proofing it myself. Look in the index for this site in October 2014. It will lead you to the Hites article and the Spinwatch piece by David Miller, UK.

The Hites group has published several articles in the past ten years on the organic and cancer-causing chemicals in farmed salmon.

In 2014, Norwegian scientists and doctors warned Norwegians not to eat farmed salmon, particularly women and children.

Go read for yourself: http://worldtruth.tv/norwegian-scientists-warn-against-eating-farmed-salmon-everything-you-need-to-know-about-farmed-fish/.

Despite this, Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair will not take fish farms out of the ocean and put them on land. Elizabeth May will take fish farms out of the water.

Ahousaht First Nation Stands Up to Foreign Multinational Cermaq, and Stephen Harper, Chilean Residents Take on Cermaq and Win, Nova Scotians Boycott Farmed Fish In Stores, Updated Sep 14, 2015

Well, finally, someone has said no to more fish farms in Clayoquot Sound, BC. The Ahousaht First Nation has blockaded the site - the 22nd  fish farm in a non-flushing Sound. If you have been to Ahousaht, it is clear that it needs major support from our BC and federal government, not fish farms that destroy their food resources.

Clayoquot Sound has only 501 wild chinook left in six rivers. There should be no fish farms here. During Cohen Commission hearings, Dr. Kristi Miller said 25% of farmed fish, in this case chinook, had diseases. Some 125,000 per farm. With 65 billion viruses being released per hour during an infection at each infection site, it is not hard to see why local wild BC salmon can't survive with fry having to swim through disease at an early stage in their lives.

The Kennedy Lake sockeye run, decimated by DFO commercial authorized fishing, was wiped out in the 1990s and has never returned during the time that fish farms have been in Clayoquot Sound. This is not right.

Good luck Ahousaht for standing up on behalf of all British Columbians and for all wild Pacific salmon. I hope this becomes an election issue, which it should have been in the last election.

Here is a news report from CTV: http://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=701676.

And here is some breaking news from Chile: http://oceana.org/blog/ceo-note-expansion-harmful-salmon-farms-stopped-chilean-patagonia-community.

The problems they note are the same ones in BC, Scotland, Ireland, Tasmania, Norway, around the world really:

"Current practices employed in Chile’s salmon farms pollute the environment, destabilize traditional fisheries and harm populations of native species. Aquaculture facilities can be significant sources of pollution with excess feed, fish waste and dead fish dispersing into the surrounding environment. Captive salmon also often escape into the environment, where they can spread disease and prey on native populations.  The process of feeding farmed salmon is highly problematic. According to most estimates, it takes between three to five pounds of wild-caught Chilean Jack Mackerel, anchoveta, sardines, and other smaller species or forage fish ground into fish meal to produce one pound of farmed salmon. This practice wastes countless healthy seafood meals (which could be eaten directly in the form of these smaller fish) and has led to the overfishing of forage fish. 

Chile’s salmon industry is notorious for its increasingly excessive use of antibiotics to fight off bacteria and disease that threaten the stock. Antibiotic use rose 25 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone, according to government data, reaching a world record of 536,200 kg of antibiotics by the whole industry only in 2014. Norway, the main producer of farmed salmon in the world uses less than 1,000 kg a year. While Chilean officials maintain that quantities of antibiotics used are safe for human consumption, there’s widespread concern that overuse may cause human antibiotic resistance and harm marine environments.  Such concern has prompted several prominent companies in the U.S. food industry, including Costco Wholesale Corp., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Trader Joe’s, to partially or entirely phase out Chilean farm salmon, according to Reuters."

Here is my comment for the Chileans: Thank you for having the fortitude to take on the Norwegian multinationals, and the Chilean authorities. The problems you note are the same ones around the world and here in BC Canada. The same movement is happening today in BC, with the Ahousaht First Nations blocking Cermaq (from Norway) from opening the 22nd farm in their territory. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/09/ahousaht-first-nation-stands-up-to.html. 

September 14, Nova Scotians Boycott Fish Farm Fish

Now, at the same time there are significant protests and progress eliminating in-ocean fish farms in BC and Chile, Nova Scotians are darn mad, too.

See:http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/letters/1310567-reader%E2%80%99s-corner-boycott-open-pen-fish-farming-products#.VfbNqaalmvg.facebook. 

" What is being done about the Doelle-Lahey report? Two lawyers pocketed a significant amount of taxpayers’ dollars to relay what every coastal resident already knew about the disastrous pollution, disease and poisons of ocean-based fish farms, seemingly to have their findings shelved by the Liberals. Doelle-Lahey insisted that all of the recommendations must be adopted to make the industry environmentally sustainable."  

Fish Farm Lice Kill Wild Salmonids - Literature Review, 2015

Previous posts on this site have shown that research says that fish farm lice kill wild salmon, wild salmon fry and that in Norway, lice are out of control because they are resistant to all the chemicals used to kill them. See the index for 2014 (index for 2015 to come): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/key-document-index-to.html.

Now there is a literature review on the Atlantic Salmon Federation that is fighting to get fish farms out of the water on Canada's Atlantic coast: http://www.asf.ca/effects-of-sea-lice-on-sea-trout.html.

This is the abstract and PDF link:

 Effects of salmon lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis on wild sea trout Salmo trutta—a literature review

This review focuses on impacts of sea lice on sea trout, but also has mention that sea lice can lead to an average of 12 - 29% fewer salmon spawners.

The article can be downloaded on this page, and from the website below.

http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/aei/v7/n2/p91-113/. 

ABSTRACT: Salmon farming increases the abundance of salmon lice, which are ectoparasites of salmonids in the sea. Here we review the current knowledge on the effects of salmon lice on wild sea trout. Salmon lice feed on host mucus, skin and muscle, and infestation may induce osmoregulatory dysfunction, physiological stress, anaemia, reduced feeding and growth, increased susceptibility to secondary infections, reduced disease resistance and ultimately mortality of individual sea trout. Wild sea trout in farm-free areas generally show low lice levels. In farm-intensive areas, lice levels on wild sea trout are typically higher, and more variable than in farm-free areas. Lice on wild sea trout are found at elevated levels particularly within 30 km of the nearest farms but can also extend to further ranges. Salmon lice in intensively farmed areas have negatively impacted wild sea trout populations by reducing growth and increasing marine mortality. Quantification of these impacts remains a challenge, although population-level effects have been quantified in Atlantic salmon by comparing the survival of chemically protected fish with control groups, which are relevant also for sea trout. Mortality attributable to salmon lice can lead to an average of 12-29% fewer salmon spawners. Reduced growth and increased mortality will reduce the benefits of marine migration for sea trout, and may also result in selection against anadromy in areas with high lice levels. Salmon lice-induced effects on sea trout populations may also extend to altered genetic composition and reduced diversity, and possibly to the local loss of sea trout, and establishment of exclusively freshwater resident populations.

- See more at: http://www.asf.ca/effects-of-sea-lice-on-sea-trout.html#sthash.aqQ2gj5G.dpuf

And in Norway, there are severe penalties for having too many lice on farmed fish: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/reports/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=b26baf019f-Salmon_roundup_Sep_04_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-b26baf019f-92426209.

In Canada, the exact opposite situation. Just look at recent posts on fishfarmnews.blogspot.com how the laws has been weakened and new aquaculture regs allow fish farms to use chemicals far in excess of the past.

BC Residents Don't Vote Conservative - No to Stephen Harper and Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood

British Columbia residents voted in high numbers against fish farms, more than 100,000 signing a petition to stop expansion, and to get fish farms out of out pristine ocean. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

The Conservatives, the Harper Government, did the opposite of what British Columbians want: they issued four more sites to fish farms in BC; they weakened the already weakened laws by bringing in new fish farm regs (See: my article on the recent Blacklock article: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1880129387856188740#editor/target=post;postID=3089477178877178483;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=6;src=postname; and they issued licences in BC for 9 years.

All of these actions are against what British Columbian voters want: we want DFO and the government to get on with saving wild Pacific salmon, and protecting the environment by putting fish farms on land.

Of the other federal parties, the Green Party has a specific policy against fish farms and will get them out of the water immediately after the election. See: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/vision-green/economy/fisheries.

Please note that as of September 1, 2015, neither the Liberals nor NDP have stated policies to eliminate fish farms from BC waters. Those who support wild salmon, do not vote Liberal nor NDP.

In a province with 99.8% of all the wild salmon in Canada - some 73 million before fisheries in saltwater - salmon are an important issue, providing along with freshwater fishing $2.52 Billion, and with another $200 Million if the Georgia Strait chinook and coho stocks are brought back. In other words, $2.72 Billion. See my Pacific Salmon Foundation Salmon Steward editorial: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2015/05/pacific-salmon-foundation-psf-editorial.html. This post gives you links to all the references I used to derive these figures.

By comparison, fish farms, provide only $469 M revenue, or only 17 percent of what we receive from BC wild fish. Their sewage is a $10.4 Billion cost to BC taxpayers and voters. The Liberals and NDP need to get out in front of this issue by publicly stating policy to get fish farms out of the oceans.

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives Don’t Get BC – Atlantic Salmon Poster

As you can see from this Conservative Party election ad, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives don’t get BC. The salmon leaping on the ad is an Atlantic Salmon, not one of the five species of Pacific Salmon. All this ad does is make British Columbian’s angry, and confirm that DFO and the Conservatives don’t get BC.

As mentioned previously, virtually all British Columbians are against farmed Atlantic Salmon in BC. Some 110,000 citizens have signed a petition to stop fish farm expansion and to get fish farms out of our pristine ocean and put them on land where they belong. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. But Stephen Harper and the Conservatives will not do what we want.

Instead, Harper has thrown $15Million in the BC pot for habitat restoration. You will know from many posts in the past few months that with the environmental laws weakened and scientists fired, DFO isn’t doing much on other fronts, either.

Now, there is some good news and some bad news about the $15Million. The good news is that it was given to the Pacific Salmon Foundation in BC. The PSF leverages such money between 4 to 7 times with contributions from BC residents and businesses.

The bad news is that it is a drop in the bucket. My estimate of money needed for habitat is $500 Million, and, by comparison, last year’s money spent on Vancouver Island was a measly $200,000.

If you look at the cost of a recent project, the Clay Bank on the Cowichan River, for instance, that 400 yards of earth removal cost $1.5 Million. When you consider that there are 70,000 culverts, and this is only one kind of damage that prevents fish passage for feeding or spawning in BC, it is easy to see that $500 Million will get used up pretty quickly.

Just so you know, my figure for pre-fishery, in-ocean BC salmon is 73 Million in an average year. But there are only 170,000 in-ocean adult Atlantic Salmon in more than half the country, some six provinces.

In other words, BC has 99.8% of the salmon in Canada. Harper doesn’t seem to get this. So much for John Duncan on Van Isle.

DFO and CFIA Testing of Diseases in Farmed Salmon

Here is a letter I received today about DFO not testing farmed salmon for PRV (Piscene Rheovirus aka HSMI, the Norwegian heart and skeletal muscle inflammation).

1. The point is that DFO and the CFIA are in conflict with the fish farm industry. The Cohen Commission told the federal government to end the conflict for DFO and take from it supporting farmed salmon, and get on with its duty to protect wild Pacific salmon.

2. The CFIA were shown to be only interested in the export dollars from farmed salmon, not wild Pacific salmon.

3. When the CFIA tested for ISA in Pacific salmon, they were shown to be testing for the Atlantic Canada variant of ISA. They found no ISA which is not surprising because it is the Norwegian variant of ISA that has been transported to BC. You will note AM's point that the samples kept were kept in RNA and thus are of no value.
4. DFO should not be appealing the decision that said all farmed smolts to be transferred needed to be tested. That is standing against wild Pacific Salmon.
5. I would be surprised if PRV was endemic as it is the virus associated with HSMI in Norway.
6. The CEO of Marine Harvest recently stated that they have 90 scientific studies going to find a solution to lice, which he said was the biggest problem in Norway. Sea lice are a problem wherever farmed salmon are allowed.






Alex Morton aksing DFO about PRV testing:

Dear Diane Trager

In a meeting earlier this year with you and representatives of Wild Salmon Forever, I asked you the question -  is DFO testing farmed salmon smolts prior to transfer into marine net pens on our wild salmon migration routes? You said you would find out, but I have not heard back from you.

As you know I won a legal decision this year that requires DFO to make the decision, at every transfer, whether PRV-infected Atlantic salmon smolts can be transferred into BC marine waters.

Somewhat shockingly DFO has joined with Marine Harvest to appeal this decision, so the salmon farmers can make this decision without DFO. It is hard to see how that serves the citizens of Canada,  however, I want to know is DFO testing salmon farming hatcheries today, prior to smolt transfer.  If not, defacto, the industry is making this decision, if they are even testing for PRV at all.

This is a significant issue as I know from my own work that nearly all Atlantic salmon for sale in BC markets are infected with PRV.  While DFO appears to depend on Dr. Gary Marty’s opinion that PRV is benign and endemic, his views were resoundingly debunked by scientists from across Canada.  

“To make that argument, Dr. Marty… has used the literature very selectively and improperly and in some cases he has misquoted or miscited information. These are cardinal sins in academia. His entire approach is very biased and presupposes the conclusion before he presents the evidence for it”  (Dr. Larry Dill, Vancouver Sun, June 12, 2015, 1st version)

This is extremely strong language and so DFO, at some level, must realize that there might be problems with Dr. Marty’s conclusions.

DFO’s preference for farmed salmon over wild salmon is shameful.  The failures are stacking up like sockeye dying in the Fraser River.  The CFIA testing for ISA virus is a sham as they stored the samples in RNALater, which prevents confirmation of the virus in Canada.  You have ignored the Cohen Commission, given the farms longterm leases, permission to use chemicals that kill fish, and DFO has done nothing to reprimand the companies involved in the shameful sea louse outbreak in the Broughton this spring that heavily infected over 90% of the juvenile out-migrating salmon.  The wild fish are a valuable public resource and yet they are treated as vermin.

DFO is allowing the industry to expand when Norway is reining them in due to their lack of ability to control sea lice, even with a wide suit of available drugs. DFO is no longer doing enumeration of wild salmon and there is no indication of response to the extreme conditions wild salmon are facing this summer in the rivers.  DFO now has a reputation of destroying scientific libraries and muzzling scientists.  

I can only conclude that DFO’s longterm plan is to closure of salmon fisheries and to let wild salmon slip into extinction, similar to how DFO presided over the demise of Canada’s cod fishery, muzzling DFO scientist, Dr. Ransom Myers who tried to inform DFO of how to protect that incredible valuable resource, one of the biggest wild food resources on earth.  But he too was muzzled, the cod collapsed and very quickly thereafter the Hibernia oil wells were affixed on the Grand Banks.  I think context is important here.

Are you allowed by your masters to answer this simple question?

Is DFO testing all farmed salmon for PRV and other pathogens prior to transfer into our marine environment.

For those of us determined to bequeath wild salmon to the next generation, we need to know.

Thank you,

Alexandra Morton

Stephen Harper Government Eliminates Environmental Laws for Fish Farms - Updated Sep 3, 2015

This graph says it all about where Norwegian fish farms in Canada (Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood, et al) are going with farmed salmon, just as they have already done in Norway. Would you eat this fish that has ten times the cancer causing chemicals,dioxins and PCBs than any other food?

[Farmed fish at 41.6 picograms/gram and beef at 4. The information is from the EU and shows the chemical levels in common meat products.]

I don’t think so. But Harper and Gail Shea have just brought in laws that weaken already weakened environmental laws in Canada. See my post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/summary-fish-farm-environmental-laws.html.

And see this article from the Huffington Post on weakening the laws: Seventeen ways the Government is Helping Kill Wild Salmon: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeff-matthews/wild-salmon-farmed-salmon-aquaculture_b_7419712.html?fb_action_ids=1673064862922068&fb_action_types=og.likes.

And, the Royal Society issued a stinging indictment on the Conservative Governments record on our three ocean coasts in 2013. Now, Gail Shea is weakening the already weakened laws to allow fish farms to do what they want with chemicals. Look once again at the above graph. Now, Ruth Salmon, of the Canadian Aquzculture Industry Alliance, says: “The new regulations are an important step in modernization.”

WRONG. They are a step backwards, and an essential step toward Norwegian farmed fish that doctors are telling people not to eat in Norway. Her words are simply industry spin. It is not modernizing to allow the use of more chemicals. Particularly ones that kill lobsters, like cypermethrin, and others for lice.

Marine Harvest first announced in Norway it would not put smolts out because they thought they would all get killed by lice. Why? Because lice are resistant to all the drugs they use there. Cypermethrin is just one of those chemicals.

“It will provide greater transparency leading to increased public confidence which will allow the industry to grow in Canada.”Says Salmon.

WRONG. Go back and look at the cancer causing chemicals in farmed salmon. What is the case is that the public who have to live with fish farms overwhelmingly reject them, and allowing more drugs, will just make they want them out of the ocean even stronger.

For example, more than 100,000 British Columbians have signed a petition to eliminate expansion and get the farms out of the waters: See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. Even the aboriginals in Ahousaht, Clayoquot Sound, have launched a petition and have stated their chiefs let them down and they will not stand for another fish farm in Clayoquot Sound where there are already 22. See the post ahead of this one for the weblink.

The public is angry all over the world, for example, Tasmania, and Nova Scotia. Read this Blacklock article: Go to: https://www.blacklocks.ca/, and search for July 16, 2015.

FURTHERMORE, fish farms are not transsparent. It is often the spin that weakening the laws will make things better. And, behind the scenes, the fish farms lawyers argue against release of information to the public.

When I tried to get the amount of money that we Canadians pay to fish farms for their diseased dead fish, the information was held up for 10 months because of a legal injunction against release.

During the Cohen Commission the same prevailed. Fish farms lawyers argued against release of disease testing tables. Cohen required them, and then fish farms changed their tune and trumpeted about how transparent they were.

Then Cohen required the individual tables. Fish farms sent in their lawyers to argue Cohen had no authority to allow public release. He required them anyway. Fish farms are not transparent.

Oh, and 90% of DFO’s own scientists are against what DFO is doing to weaken laws and reduced science budgets: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/12/canada-strictest-fish-farm-laws-no-best.html.

And I asked the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency for the location of east coast farms with the worst disease, ISA. They sent a note back, Aug 7, 2015 saying I could not get this information without a formal freedom of information request. This is not transparency. Interestingly, it was from Dr. Kim Klottins, who on the Cohen stand got cornered into saying that the CFIA was only interested in foreign trade in BC fish farm products.

Ruth Salmon goes on: "There have been conflicting roles between the provincial and federal governments and this is going to clarify rules and responsibilities."

WRONG. In BC, all of fish farm rules and regulations fall to the federal government. There is no conflict. But, DFO, itself is in conflict, as pointed out by Cohen.

A senator, Thomas McInnis, NB, said: "it's difficult for me to believe that you haven't turned this almost entirely over to the industry." 

RIGHT. The main point is that there is no management of fish farms that hasn't been shown to be in conflict with them - federall, provincial, academics, testing systems and so on. This happens all over the world. An earlier post on this site pointed out that the NOAA in the USA's technical report could not have been more pro-industry if it had just allowed fish farms to write it themselves

McInnes goes on: "There is a tremendous public outcry of concerrn and uncertainty with respect to aquaculture."

RIGHT. This happens all over the world once the public begins to understand the environmental degradation of fish farms. See the petition link above..

The Kevin-Baker-Voakes article goes on to say, that MargotVenton, of Ecojustice, a BC environmental law organization that is currently in court fighting DFOand Marine Harvest's putting infected farmed fish in saltwater in BC: "The regulations seem to authorize the destruction of fish habitat [The fisheries Act also had section 35, 36, changed to weaken environmental laws] when that destruction is for the purpose of putting in a new aquaculture facility."

RIGHT. The fear is that fish farms will begin killing wild salmon because the new regulations appear to allow it. Venton also points out that there is no public release regulation, nor one on public release of the chemicals in farmed fish. And, of course, I have noted that fish farms are not transparent, and the regulatory agencies, the CFIA, for example, also require a freedom of information request, of which mine was held up for 10 months by a behind the scenes fish farm injunction.

The Baker-Voakes article goes on to note that 124 conservationists including six retired federal researchers petitioned Cabinet to withdraw the amendments, saying they were 'gravely concerned' with the consequences.

Pamela Parker for the fish farms says that: "These chemicals have been used in Norway and the UK for ten years. Canada is very late in approving any of these products.

WRONG. Norway lobbied the EU to allow chemicals in farmed fish some ten times above the same chemical levels in other farmed meat/poutry/dairy products. The above graph shows it.

And last year, doctors and scientists in Norway told Norwegians not to eat farmed fish because of the high level of chemicals in them. Go back to the Index to this site for weblink references:  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/index-to-wwwfishfarmnewsblogspotcom.html. 

THE REAL SITUATION

Fish farms say that they operate under the strictest laws in the world in the country they operate in. Fish farms said the same thing in Norway, Scotland, Chile and Canada last year. This cannot be true because the laws in all countries are different.

Furthermore, Chile is publicly, widely acknowledged as the dirtiest country in the world for fish farms. Hence its laws can't be as good as those in Canada, or elsewhere.

But, fish farms argue for reduced strictness, and then use that from one country, they note the UK and Norway for example, to argue that laws have to be weakened in other jurisdictions they operate in this case, Canada. It is a race to the bottom, not 'modernization'.


Subsequent Additions to this Post:


WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW GROUP ON WEAKENED ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

West Coast Environmental Law group's post on the environmental laws weakened by the federal government. See: http://www.blackoutspeakout.ca/cms/uploads/budget-bill-top-10.pdf. 

DFO CUTS 130 HABITAT JOBS

Not only have the laws been changed, but frontline staff have and are being removed from protection of fish habitat. In other words, the laws have been removed and the staff who deal with habitat issues have also been removed. See a recent CBC article on the issue: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ottawa-set-to-cut-130-positions-from-fish-habitat-programs-1.1193488. 

In other words, conservation and protection staff are pretty much eliminated, so those weakened fish farm laws, are not being enforced because staff has been cut.

HABITAT SHOWS STEEP DECLINE UNDER STEPHEN HARPER GOVERNMENT

U of C professor, Martin Olszynski, in the Journal of Environmental Law and Practice, has published a stinging indictment of the Harper Government decade of eliminating environmental laws, programs and staff.

Here is a text file of the figures, for example, DFO's budget dropped by $80 Million in 2012, $100 million more in cuts are planned. DFO reduced proposals with environmental dimensions from 12,000 in 2001, to 4,000 in 2014. DFO staff for Fisheries Act charges fell to 50 from 300, and staff time allotted dropped to 10,000 hours from 35,000 hours.

See: http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/newbrunswick/story/1.3212403. 

After studying reams of data Olszynski consluded that Ottawa has 'all but abandoned' attempts to protect Canada's lakes and rivers.

The paper is published in the Journal of Environmental Law and Practice: http://www.law.ucalgary.ca/faculty/publications-olszynski. Note that you must be a research use, U of C computer, public computer to access the paper.

Grieg Seafood Loses Salmon To Low Oxygen in BC

Grieg Seafood has lost 1000 metric tonnes of product at its west coast operations: Muchalet North and Willianson sites.

At Muchalet it was 146,000 salmon while at Williamson it was 532,000.

This kind of loss is completely preventable with on-land recirculating sites, but Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood refuse to come out of the water and save their fish and save the jobs of employees.

Considering that we subsidize them to the tune of $1.65 Million per site by not charging a market level licence fee of the same value the same companies face in Norway, taxpayers are subsidizing these losses and having them use our ocean as a free, open sewer. My estimate of the sewage cost we shoulder in BC is $10.4 Billion. We don't want to pay.

See: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/06/23/grieg-loses-around-1000t-salmon-to-low-water-oxygen-in-canada/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=aafe10018b-Americas_briefing_Jun_23_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-aafe10018b-92426209

.

Nancy Greene Raine Silence On Fish Farms Speaks Volumes on Support for Wild BC Salmon

Go back and look at this article on Nancy Greene Raine supporting fish farms in 2014.

See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/05/nancy-greene-raine-and-federal-senators.html.

It gives you a good summary on fish farm problems in BC Canada and around the world.

Since I posted it, I have not seen Nancy Greene Raine - a BC senator - say anything about supporting fish farms. She no doubt now realizes, as I pointed out, that to stand with Norwegian style fish farms is standing against BC wild salmon.

She must know that this is a non-starter in this province as her name would go down as the person who destroyed wild BC and all Pacific Ocean salmonids - five species, perhaps a billion wild salmon..

Note that DFO and senators in the rest of Canada do not know that BC has 99.8% of all the wild salmon in Canada. The rest of Canada, six provinces, have only 177,000 Atlantic salmon, or 0.2% of all the salmon in Canada. This is why DFO and the Senate and the federal government do not understand the meaning of wild salmon to the Pacific ocean and BC.

This is such a big issue here that the citizens of BC will be turned against the rest of Canada if DFO, Gail Shea, and the Conservative Government do not take fish farms out of the BC ocean waters. In BC, there are a number of environmental issues that have turned citizens against the Harper Government, including the Enbridge pipeline, Kinder Morgan pipeline, US coal shipments, Site C dam, LNG, Mt. Polly tailings pond breach, even though some of these are provincial issues.

Go back and find the many posts that give you the link to the 110,000 British Columbians who have signed a petition to have DFO and BC, Christy Clark, not allow expansion of fish farms in BC and to get fish farms out of the BC ocean.

Stephen Harper Conservatives Against Wild Pacific Salmon - Vote No to Stephen Harper

I sent the following letter to all BC MPs, asking whether they stand for wild BC Salmon and will remove fish farms from our pristine BC ocean. I have not received one response from Stephen Harper's Conservative MPs in BC. In other words, don't vote Conservative.

Below my note, read the good response I got from Elizabeth May, Green Party leader. She stands for wild BC salmon.

My letter to BC MPs:

Subject: Fw: Will You Remove Fish Farms from BC's Pristine Ocean?

Hi BC MP

Do you support wild BC salmon and, if elected in 2015, will you take fish farms out of the ocean and put them on land where they belong?

More than 100,000 British Columbians have signed a petition telling government to eliminate in-ocean fish farms: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. We want them on land or they can go back to Norway. We don’t want them using our pristine ocean as a free, open sewer any more.

Despite the stats DFO and fish farms dream up, the most reliable figures show that fish farm operations are so small a contribution to the BC economy in terms of jobs and revenue, and their environmental toll is so high, they are actually a negative contribution. See: file:///C:/Users/Norman/Downloads/British%20Columbias%20Fisheries%20and%20Aquaculture%20Sector%202012%20Edition%20(12).pdf.

There are only 795 actual jobs in the fish farm industry, only $61.9 Million contribution to GPP, and the in-ocean operations put out sewage that exceeds the output of the entire 4.6 million human population in BC, an estimated $10.4 Billion shouldered by the taxpayers of BC. We don’t want to pay. And we don’t want government using our money to make payments for their diseased, dead fish – up to $30 each. We don’t want the chemicals, diseases, lice and sea lion deaths in our oceans anymore.

Look at www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com, and use the index to find references for the quoted figures: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/index-to-wwwfishfarmnewsblogspotcom.html.

Your Yes or No – repeated lack of response is a No – will be published alongside all current BC MPs. During the election campaign, this note will be sent to all candidates, and the lists of yes and no also published to help voters across the province vote in candidates who will take fish farms out of the water.

DC Reid

Elizabeth May, Green Party response:

Dear DC Reid,

Thank you for writing about salmon farms. I apologize for the delay in responding.

I strongly support the health of wild BC salmon, and am committed to the improvement of fish farming practices. The Green Party of Canada seeks a moratorium on new open-ocean net-pen salmon farms and a phase-out of existing farms within ten years. Conservation of wild fisheries must take precedence over aquaculture.

There are so many problems with open net cage fish farming in BC’s marine environment. These problems range from the transfer of diseases and parasites to wild salmon, the use of wild fish as feed for farmed fish, the dispersal of tons of solid waste and nutrients into the surrounding waters, and the problematic use of antibiotics in farmed fish. The mass farming of salmon threatens wild salmon with extinction.

Justice Bruce Cohen’s landmark report looked into the decline of the sockeye salmon in British Columbia’s Fraser River. The report presented 75 policy recommendations for addressing the multiple threats to the survival of BC’s wild salmon. The Cohen Commission emphasized the need for far more stringent monitoring of local salmon farming operations, and recommended that fish farms be removed from Sockeye migratory areas.

Rather than act on Cohen’s recommendations, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has opted to totally ignore the report. The department commissioned a study at enormous expense to taxpayers and then disregards it, as if their only duty was to investigate, not to act. This is disgraceful.

The treatment of the Cohen Report is only one example of the Harper Conservatives’ insistent indifference to the threats to wild salmon, whether from tankers or aquaculture. Rather than scale back toxic fish factories, the Harper Conservatives have been pushing for expansion, as if there was no issue. If this pattern continues, the changes could well be irreversible.

Thank you again for writing. I am glad to know that you are so engaged on this issue.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth May O.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada

DC Reid

Escaped Farmed Salmon/Trout in Norway

A major new report has tallied up the losses of salmon and rainbow trout from escapes in the country where fish farms started - Norway. Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood that operate in BC all originate in Norway.

What are the losses? If you can believe it, 16.3% of of farmed salmon and 18.3% of rainbow trout escaped from fish farms.

These companies operate in BC. If they lose fish at the same rate they do in Norway, the roughly 48,000,000 BC farmed salmon (80 farms times 600,000 fish per farm) that would mean 7.68 million farmed fish would be lost in BC every year.

That is a huge number, exceeding losses in Chile - typically 4 million per year, also far below the numbers from Norway. Something wrong is happening in Norway.

Read the science: http://www.mattilsynet.no/fisk_og_akvakultur/fiskevelferd/tap_av_oppdrettsfisk_kartlagt.15427. 

Harper Government Dismantling Canadian Government Science Resources, Updated Dec 26, 2013

This Tyee article is a very good summary document of many of the actions taken by the Harper Government (as Harper likes to call it) to dismantle our federal government science capability that Canadians have paid and continue to pay for: http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/23/Canadian-Science-Libraries/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=231213.

It starts with the issue of closing the science library in Winnipeg, and then goes on to list toward the bottom many of the other steps the Harper Government has taken in the past year or so. Such items include gutting the Fisheries Act of environmental clauses, doing the same to the Environmental Protection Act. firing scientists and other actions.

If you look back in these posts, the Royal Society put out a stinging indictment of the government's lack of action on our three coast oceans in 2012: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/key-document-royal-society-of-canada.htmlhttp://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/key-document-royal-society-of-canada.html.

Key Document: BC Conservative Members Who Voted Against Wild BC Salmon

Here are the federal Conservative members elected in BC to take our views to Ottawa: Don Albas, John Duncan, Nina Grewal, Richard Harris, Russ Heibert, Randy Kamp, James Lunney, Colin Mayes, Cathy McLeod, James Moore, Andrew Saxton, Mark Strahl, Mark Warawa, John Weston, David Wilks, Alice Wong, Wai Young, and Bob Zimmer.

You want to remember these names for the next election. It is unlikely that many of them will be re-elected because of the environmental damage that the Omnibus Budget Bill, some 420 pages, will cause with their votes.

Stephen Harper's government has gutted the Fisheries Act of its salmon habitat protection clauses, 36 and 38. The Environmental Assessment Act has been rendered impotent. See a previous post to read what the Royal Society said in their report earlier this year on the government's handling of the environment on our three ocean borders.. It was, as the expression goes, a stinging indictment of environmental policy of Harper's Conservative government. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/key-document-royal-society-of-canada.html.


Gutting the Fisheries Act also favours farmed salmon that BC residents overwhelmingly want on land in closed containers. You simply have to Google: fish farm diseases, to read for days. And Google: fish farm environmental damage, and read for days on damage to the environment.


And, there is the Enbridge pipeline, Run of River Power that no one in BC wants, and so on.